Republicans Have Filed A Formal Complaint Into Obama's 'Misuse Of Taxpayer Dollars'

Defense.govObama's getting heat for his travel -- now in the form of a formal complaint.

To the Republican National Committee, President Obama's recent travel in the last two days to three swing states is more than a coincidence. And now it has drawn formal complaint by the RNC into what it calls a "misuse of government funds" by the Obama campaign.

Reince Priebus, the RNC's chair, filed the formal complaint with the Government Accountability Office late Wednesday afternoon.

"Particularly in recent weeks, President Obama has been passing off campaign travel as 'official events,' thereby allowing taxpayers, rather than his campaign, to pay for his reelection efforts," Priebus wrote in a letter to the GAO Comptroller General Gene L. Dodaro.

"Given the recent excesses, waste, and abuse uncovered in the General Services Administration, the GAO should be particularly sensitive to misuse of taxpayer dollars."

Priebus used Obama's most recent travel to highlight the issue — a two-day, three-state swing ... in three swing states. Obama traveled and spoke on the issue of student loans over the past two days in North Carolina, Colorado and, today, Iowa.

"Please note that President Obama traveled to three states largely considered to be electoral battlegrounds to promote this legislation," Priebus wrote. "One might imagine that if this were genuinely a government event he might have stopped in a non-battleground state like Texas or Vermont."

Katie Hogan, a campaign spokeswoman, said, “The campaign will follow all rules and pay for the portion of travel that relates to political events, as has been true for previous incumbent presidential candidates.”

A White House spokesman, Eric Schultz, said, “As in other administrations, we follow all rules and regulations to ensure that the D.N.C. or other relevant political committee pays what is required for the president to travel to political events.”

Mark Knoller, the CBS White House correspondent well known for his tracking of the President's travel, told the Times this: